*Article* **Optimization of Production–Living–Ecological Space in National Key Poverty-Stricken City of Southwest China**

**Di Wang 1,\*, Jingying Fu 2,3 and Dong Jiang 2,3,4**


**Abstract:** Trade-offs and conflicts among different sectors of production, living, and ecology have become important issues in regional sustainable development planning due to both the versatility and limitation of land resources, especially in poverty-stricken mountainous areas. This study builds an optimization model to assist policymakers in simulating land demand and allocation in the future. The model takes socioeconomic and demographic development into consideration and couples local planning policy with land use data from the perspective of system integration. The model was employed for a case study of Zhaotong city to optimize production–living–ecological (PLE) space. The results show that the model provides a feasible method to explore the sustainable development pattern of territorial space, especially in distressed regions.

**Keywords:** PLE space; trade-offs and conflicts; sustainable development; system dynamic model; FLUS
